Mel Gibson announces the title of the Passion of the Christ sequel with Greg Laurie at SoCal Harvest 2016.
Mel Gibson just might have let slip the title of sequel to The Passion of the Christ in an interview during a SoCal Harvest evangelical church event in Anaheim, California, reports Church Pop.
‘The Resurrection’ is Mel Gibson’s Sequel to ‘The Passion of the Christ'[/tweetthis]
Evangelical pastor Greg Laurie asked about the title of the project, the existence of which was revealed publicly back in June. “Of course, that’s a huge undertaking,” said Gibson, “and it’s not The Passion 2 — it’s called The Resurrection.”
The evangelical community has been pushing for this sequel ever since the first movie was released in 2004. Gibson and his company, Icon Productions, funded The Passion of the Christ to the tune of $45 million. It was a highly profitable venture, bringing in $612 million worldwide, making it the most successful independent movie ever, and the highest grossing R-rated film ever (at the time). And the evangelical community considers The Passion to be the biggest movie to ever come out of Hollywood.
Gibson is partnering with Randall Wallace on The Resurrection. The two had previously teamed up to produce Braveheart, which won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. Wallace’s most recent work was the Christian-themed Heaven is for Real.
There is no timetable for the release of The Resurrection. Gibson said the creative team is still working to find the deeper meaning in the story for the film, which is necessary to create something on par with The Passion of the Christ.
Mel Gibson Says The Resurrection is Coming https://t.co/UvHSugPYVR #christiancinema via @christiancinema
— Scot Paul (@scotpaul) September 9, 2016
Gibson acknowledged the size of the project and the need for extensive research and brainstorming for ideas. “…we don’t wanna do just a simple rendering of it. We can all read what happened, but in order to really experience and explore probably deeper meanings of what it’s about is gonna take some doing.”
While the evangelical community waits for what it thinks will be even bigger than The Passion of the Christ, Gibson and Wallace will release another movie with a strong Christian strand running through it, Hacksaw Ridge, which will be released in November and chronicles the struggles of a Christian soldier during WWII.